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Sunday, 27 December 2015

Hello everyone on this fourth day of Christmas and I hope everyone is enjoying the festive season. It is my turn to share a project at Country View Challenges today for our theme:

Make A Scene

You will remember how much I enjoyed making a little shadow box at Michelle Webb's workshop back in November, so I couldn't resist making one of my own from heavy cardstock and decorating it with a little scene made up of some Tando Creatives die cuts I bought whilst on the workshop.

I created my background by first painting the greyboard with gesso and then a couple of coats of PaperArtsy Fresco Paint in Snowflake. I then created a little texture with some Crackle Paste and a Harlequinn stencil and once this had dried I overlaid a watery mix of Pansy Fresco Paint. Once the box was put together I gave everything a good splattering with gesso!

These gorgeous Tando treas got a coating of Snowflake Fresco Paint and then Rock Candy Distress Crackle applied here and there. I also added some Rock Candy to the little ceramic flowers to give them a little sparkle.

And would you know that this is a Beach Hut !!!!! I had great fun putting this little shed together with text paper and crackle paint.

And so my finished boxed wintry scene, which glitters beautifully in candlelight.Thank you for joining me today and my best wishes to you all for the rest of the festive season.

Thursday, 24 December 2015

What better way than to wish all my lovely blogging followers and friends a happy Christmas by sharing my take on Tim's wonderful December tag.

As usual all the details for Tim's tag are HERE and it won't take you a nano second to realise that mine is a little different! With no hessian I turned to vintage linen (another piece from one of my mother's unstarted linen embroideries) and I wanted a softer look so I went for Evergreen Bough instead of Fired Brick.

This really is a fabulous technique and one I must remember to use again!

The ribbon was made using the Stampin Up Ribbon Punch but got a TH make-over with some inks and distressing! I didn't have any bells or baubles small enough so used three very small tattered florals from the Tattered Florals Garland die. And … … I must remember to buy one of Tim's splatter brushes in the New Year - some rather unfortunate blobs!

Some creative fun in the midst of the last bits and pieces of Christmas.And now all is done and ready … just to clear up the kitchen after Terry has made the sausage rolls and carrot cake - bless him! He has already made fudge, peppermint creams and ginger biscuits.So it just remains for me to wish you all a very happy, peaceful and cozy Christmas wherever you are and whoever you are with.Love and hugsJennie x

Thursday, 17 December 2015

A quick post today to share some Christmas decorations made in between putting together other projects.

I wanted some white decorations to set off the white and red poinsettias I made last year for the Manse mantlepiece. We don't go in for many decorations but the mantlepiece always gets the full treatment!

I have used Eileen Hull's cube die set and experimented with some heavy cardstock I managed to purchase from a Model Railway site!

The boxes were gessoed and then I used Tim's Poinsettia die and some Crackle Paste to add some texture. It is difficult to see in the photograph being white on white!

Sunday, 13 December 2015

We had so much fun with our Vintage Journey Creative Guides Secret Santa last year that we decided to do it again! Names were drawn out of a hat by Brenda and I was delighted to find out that I was making a Secret Santa present for my team buddie Sandy Diller in the US. As this parcel was to travel a long way I had to ensure that it would get there in one piece so I decided to make this little Christmas folio book for Sandy to record some Christmas memories.

I used papers from the Tim Holtz Yuletide Paper Stash and decorated the cover with some of my usual vintage elements.

Inside there are tags and pockets for journalling or adding photographs.

The parcel was decorated with this tag as I realised I hadn't done much in the way of stamping! I used the Poinsettia Layering Stencil to create some texture and added Festive Berries and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. Decoration was simple: just a little overstamping and some Christmas rub ons.

Thursday, 10 December 2015

Today I am sharing a 3" x 6" Christmas card over at the Country View Projects Blog. Do hop on over and join me if you want to hear about the techniques I used and how I made those really dainty little Christmas roses!

Friday, 4 December 2015

Today we start a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey and the lovely Annie is our host this month and she has chosen the theme:

A Vintage Christmas

Use your dies, stamps, rub ons - anything

you choose to create a Vintage Christmas

card, home decor piece or a gift for someone special.

Now that we are into December I don't mind starting to make Christmas decorations! I used a Spellbinders die to cut the base for my decoration. I cut one in Coasterboard and then covered both sides using Tim's Yuletide Paper Stash. The lovely little label comes from the sheet of tickets at the back of the paper stash.

I love making these snowy white crispy poinsettias using Tim's Tatterred Poinsettia Die. Click the link HERE if you want to see the tutorial on my blog from last Christmas. These poinsettias were made with white cardstock which I spritzed with Perfect Pearls before they dried. Instead of a brad in the centre I used these lovely white stamens for a real Christmas look.

The addition of a few more Christmassy embellishments were just enough to give it a vintage Christmas feel.I do hope you will join us for our challenge and do hop on over to A Vintage Journey to see a fabulous array of projects from my fellow Creative Guides. You can't fail to be inspired!Thank you for joining me today and I hope you have a lovely weekend - gales and rain are forecast here, so plenty of time to catch up with writing Christmas cards and wrapping presents.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Hello for the second time this morning! and thanks for joining me again! It is the start of another challenge at Our Creative Corner and the wonderful mixed media master Trish has challenged us to

Wish Upon A Star

My challenge to you all this month is a very simple one...Stars!I have a passion for stars. Stars are incorporated into my email addresses, internet log ins, business name and even my tattoos :) I would love for you all to share your creations, full of stars!

Use lots, or just the one, as long as there is a star somewhere, you're good to go!

And so quite literally I have placed a "wish" upon a "star" and made two Christmas star decorations.I had the most wonderful fun at the Coventry Mixology (Deco Art) Event in November and am at the stage of wanting to crackle just about everything, so these stars got the treatment!

This paper mache star was first painted with Deco Art Primary Magenta before being crackled with Deco Art Crackle Paint. I love it !!

I treated this star slightly differently by adding some music paper and covering lightly with gesso before using an Andy Skinner flourish stencil and the Deco Art Crackle Paste. Another winner! - it really is gorgeous crackle to work with.

I do hope you will find some time during this busy month and join us in this starry challenge. Tando Creative are our sponsors this month and there is a fabulous surprise parcel of goodies for the prize winner.

However busy this month gets I do hope you find time for some crafting.

… and as it is the first of the month I am here with my first post of today to share with you the new challenge at Country View Crafts chosen this month by Rachel which is:

Make A Scene

I made this (tiny!) shadow box using a Barbara Walton die and crackled just about anything I could!

Although still November it was a snowy day when I made this and the skies were grey so I tried to emulate this in the background and in the inking of the flower using Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke Distress Inks - a really lovely combination.

Unfortunately it is that time of the year when I am unable to take "how to" pictures as the light is so poor, even during the middle of the day. But I am sure you get the "gist" of what I have done here!

I am sure we all have lots of dies, stamps and papers which can be used for this challenge and we hope that you will find time during this busy month to take part. Do hop on over to the CVC challenge to see some fabulous inspirational projects from the rest of the Design Team.

Saturday, 28 November 2015

I am pretty late with this month's tag however this is due to my absolutely loving the background technique and I have been using it on a number of projects, so be warned you are going to get fed up seeing it !!!!

As usual you can see all the details for Tim's tag HERE. Amazingly for once I had all the individual elements!

Once I had created the Paint Resist I used Old Paper Distress Ink and the Wrinkle Free Technique as I wanted something a little lighter. Ground Espresso provided a lovely contrast edging and also darkened my very light cork.I don't have many Distress Markers, so my pumpkin was painted with Distress Inks: Carved Pumpkin, Fossilised Amber and Rusty Hinge. A very enjoyable tag to make and finished last night whilst enjoying a glass of wine - it doesn't get much better!Enjoy the rest of the weekend.Jennie x

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Having enjoyed my day with Michelle Webb I then spent Sunday in a workshop with Andy Skinner. I have wanted to try his rusting techniques for a long long time, so I was very excited - and of course I was not disappointed!

We made front and back covers for a book, painting them first and then adding the crackle. Whilst that was drying we spent tie rusting all the individual cogs and wheels with paints, texture and crackle.

Don't you just love that crackle!!!! I love there way you can also add a wash over the top too which meant everyone's books were a different colour.

Had to give you a close up!

And a close up of some of the rusting.

Another wonderful day! Thank you Andy for such a wonderfully organised workshop. It really was fabulous experience.

So Deco Art products here we come - needless to say I came home with a few!

At long last I have been able to photograph and blog the wonderful pieces I made at the Mixology 101 Event in Coventry a couple of weeks ago. I had an amazing time, met some wonderful people and caught up with old friends too. Thank you everyone for making me so welcome and a huge round of applause for Di and Tony Oliver of Tando Creations for their organisation of the event.

So … my first day was a workshop with Michelle Webb, someone I have long admired. We created this wonderfully colourful mixed media shadow box.

This was my first experience of working with Deco Art products and we used a lot! I love the Crackle Paint and the gorgeous bright colours of the Fluid Acrylics.

My beach huts looked pretty awful when I first started painting them (in fact I felt totally ashamed of them!). But by the time they had the stamping and paints added they appeared reasonably passable!

Here you can see the depth of the pieces we were working with.This was so much fun and very different for me! Thank you so much Michelle x

About Me

Live the Dream is all about my creative journey which seems to be continually evolving!
My style is shabby vintage mixed media and I am passionate about making my own flower embellishments. I love sharing my work either in tutorials here and on Design Team blogs and also at workshops here in Shetland.
Where will it lead me next I wonder - wherever or whatever I know I am living the dream!